Psychiatry and Community Behavioral Health

Psychiatry and Community Behavioral Health is the largest and clinically most diverse section of Behavioral Health. This integrated program of care for pediatric mental disorders was created via collaboration between Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University (OSU).

Services available include:

• Pediatric crisis assessment and management services;
• Consultation-liaison services for youth hospitalized at Nationwide Children's;
• 20 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient beds at OSU-Harding Hospital;
• 16 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient beds at Nationwide Children's Hospital;
• Intermediate levels of psychiatric care in the community, courts, and schools;
• A multi-site outpatient treatment program; and
• A novel program to support mental health service delivery by primary care clinicians.

Our decision support program offers advice and guidance to primary care clinicians who are caring for youth with mental disorders in the office setting. Educational experiences are offered to medical students and trainees in child and adolescent psychiatry, psychology, nursing and social work.

Collaborative research with investigators from the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s aims to improve access to psychiatric care and advance evidence based practice in real world settings. Novel initiatives include the use of electronic touch pads to enhance screening and diagnostic assessment efforts in specialty mental health and primary care settings, and a study of interactive voice response technology as a means of monitoring the safety of antidepressant treated youth.

Endowments of $1,000,000 each at Nationwide Children's and OSU established by the generosity of the Jeffrey family are being used to advance the development of academic excellence in child and adolescent psychiatry.